Dash M.I.N.D.

Here is my car PC. I wanted to buy a MP3 player, and then I wanted a navigation system.
Then I decided to do it myself - it sounded more interesting and more exciting. Here is the result.
Here are few pictures of the car PC that I built. What is unique in my car PC? It fits in the car audio opening. The case is 7” x 7” x 2”. Inside is the motherboard, DVD and HDD drive. 20GB of room for music. It could hold about 300-400 CD (if I go crazy about the quality). I do not think I have enough CDs, but I am working on that.
For more pictures come to the project website : http://www.neoslogic.com/media4d

As I said - I created the application running on the car PC. I did not want to use off the shelf products, but build it myself.

This is the navigation screen.

This is the MP3 player. I can select the CDs based on artist or album or genre.

I decided to put few tools - calculator, unit conversion and so on....

I've been trying to play around with the MapPoint control in VB as well, but since I'm not exactly Mr Wizard with VB, it's been giving me fits, and I decided to leave it for later (or at least until I could learn some more about it).

I tried parsing through MSDN for info, but it's not very informative. What did you use as a source of info to learn how to do this? (If I may ask)

The project looks great and I like the way you crammed everything into the DIN case.

I was thinking of doing the same thing with my monitor integrated into my double-DIN case with quick action buttons around the outside of the screen for some of the more common used functions of the software.

The buttons would be easy to implement using a keyboard emulator or a hacked keyboard circuit.

Well, thanks guys for the nice words .
deadweasek, it is not a VB application, it is in C++. MapPoint is not documented very well and it took me a lot of time trying this and that.

brooksware2000, I had a double-DIN project, that is on hold now , because I changes the car. My Contour now has 2 single-DIN openings, instead of one double-DIN.
I have implemented an on-screen keyboard and I could post few more pictures , if you'd like to see more of the app.
I like direct-access butons on the screen, because when you drive it is not practicle to go trough main menu , sub-menu and so on...

Well, thanks guys for the nice words .
deadweasek, it is not a VB application, it is in C++. MapPoint is not documented very well and it took me a lot of time trying this and that.

Oops. I think it was mentioned already yours is in C++. Sorry, my bad, as they say in D-Town. You aren't lying about not being documented well. MSDN will tell me how to layout the syntax for a control, but not how the control works in the grand scheme of things.
As much as I do like Windows, and the general programming environment that MS has set up so far, I really have to gripe about them:

1) Bragging about how MapPoint is part of the Microsoft Office suite of programs, and will have integration built-in for cross-program data, then keeping it well separate from the Office suite (but maintaining that connection anyway).

2) Providing the tools to make that cross-program integration work for you, but not giving the user a single clue as to how they're supposed to be used.

3) Making it so expensive that the only people who can afford it are people who make too much money to worry about such mundane things as "retrieving email", people who have enough money but have already written something better from scratch for themselves alone, and nerds like us who have nothing better to do than "see what this does".

Anyhow, again, great work! I'm betting more than a couple folks here needed to change their drawers when they saw how small the install was!

Yes, MapPoint is very tricksy . But ones you get it working, it is really good. The problem is that it is too fat, because it ofers too much. Some functionality is not needed in car navigation, but there is no way to configure the ActiveX. And yes - it is very expensive.
If you guys know of another Win ActiveX that can replace MapPoint, please let me know. I found a few companies offering such things, but they are not as nice looking as MapPoint....
skraggy_uk, it is a dialog-based application. Dialogs itselfs are skinned. I'm working on 'settings', where you can specify a skin form a pre-set list of skins. It is meant to help you match your car interior .
But if you are asking 'can you skin it?', I think it is too much work to be done by a single man to make it skinable. It is doable, but will take me a week or so and I prefer to leave this functionality for later, if you do not mind .
Hey, brooksware2000. can you make a keyboard circuit? I was thinking to use a touch-panel on the case front panel, instead of buttons (I hate buttons - unflexible are they ). The same touch panels that are using on the latest ovens . The controler is very simple and the only thing that you need to do is to 'draw' your buttons . But until then, if you can make the keyboard buttons work, me can make something nice .

Yes, MapPoint is very tricksy . But ones you get it working, it is really good. The problem is that it is too fat, because it ofers too much. Some functionality is not needed in car navigation, but there is no way to configure the ActiveX. And yes - it is very expensive.
If you guys know of another Win ActiveX that can replace MapPoint, please let me know. I found a few companies offering such things, but they are not as nice looking as MapPoint....
skraggy_uk, it is a dialog-based application. Dialogs itselfs are skinned. I'm working on 'settings', where you can specify a skin form a pre-set list of skins. It is meant to help you match your car interior .
But if you are asking 'can you skin it?', I think it is too much work to be done by a single man to make it skinable. It is doable, but will take me a week or so and I prefer to leave this functionality for later, if you do not mind .
Hey, brooksware2000. can you make a keyboard circuit? I was thinking to use a touch-panel on the case front panel, instead of buttons (I hate buttons - unflexible are they ). The same touch panels that are using on the latest ovens . The controler is very simple and the only thing that you need to do is to 'draw' your buttons . But until then, if you can make the keyboard buttons work, me can make something nice .

Yep, I can do it. In fact there are two methods to go with it. The first is to hack the circuit board out of an old keyboard and spend about an hour mapping out the associated keys. The second is to buy a premade keyboard emulator with 28 or 56 outputs at a very resonable cost called the Ipac. I have like 4 of these and I am using one in my full blown Arcade Mame machine. The second option is definitely the easiest. I have been using MediaEngine and I can map out the keyboard keys in the program to whatever buttons on the emulator that I have. I have done the keyboard hack and it is definitly the cheapest method but the most time consuming.